Tsotne Zedginidze, born into a family of musicians, is a descendent of Niko Sulkhanishvili, who is considered to be one of the greatest Georgian composers of all times, and a famous professor, Anastasia Abdushelishvili-Virsaladze (her students including Lev Vlassenko, Elisso Virsaladze and Dimitry Bashkirov).
From his early childhood, Tsotne showed great enthusiasm for operas, ballets, instrumental and vocal music. By the age of two he was able to distinguish and name different musical instruments. He began piano lessons at five, studying with his grandmother and professor, Nino Mamradze. His progress was remarkable: only six years old, he covered basic piano repertoire and started studying sonatas by Clementi, Scarlatti, Mozart and Beethoven, two- and three-part inventions by Bach and pieces by Grieg, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and Prokofiev. His extraordinary sight-reading ability led him to play many of these works accurately at first viewing. At this age, he became increasingly interested in opera and started listening avidly to Italian operas as well as those of Wagner and Strauss.
Still just six years old, Tsotne started composing and became more interested in music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He advanced his study of opera by playing vocal scores of operas on the piano, including Lulu (Berg), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Shostakovich), and Duke Bluebeard’s Castle (Bartók). Self-taught as a composer, he developed and personalized his composing style through musical experiments and a search for new compositional techniques. His interest in opera continues as he keenly watches the productions from leading opera houses around the world.
Tsotne gave his first public piano recital in Tbilisi in June 2019, where he performed music by Berg (Sonata, Op. 1), Bach, Shostakovich, and Janáček, alongside a selection of his own compositions. A few months later he performed at the Telavi International Music Festival organized by Elisso Virsaladze and participated in the season opening concert of the Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra, where he performed Shostakovich’s 2nd piano concerto next to his own compositions under the baton of Nikoloz Rachveli. The concert was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. In December 2019, with the support of Paata Burchuladze’s Iavnana Foundation, Tsotne gave a solo recital at the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire.
In June 2020, Tsotne premiered his new piece The Bells for piano, composed during the Covid-19 quarantine and dedicated to the memory of his mother, Irene Sulkhanishvili.
In September 2021, Tsotne premiered his Sonata for Violin and Piano together with Lisa Batiashvili and a piano duo with Sandro Nebieridze at the Tsinandali Festival. He participated at the international festival ArtDialog in Switzerland, performed at the Rachmaninoff Museum in Vila Senar and received masterclasses from Boris Berezovsky. In November 2021 and June 2022, Tsotne was invited for solo recitals at Schloss Elmau. His concerts were very well received by the audience, amongst whom the great pianist Grigory Sokolov attended and commented that “Tsotne’s compositions belong to the monumental world of Bach and Brahms”.
In 2022, by the invitation of Lisa Batiashvili, Tsotne performed a solo recital and premiered his Fantasia for Piano and Orchestra at the Audi Sommerkonzerte, Ingolstadt, with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra and Nikoloz Rachveli. In July 2022, Tsotne gave his debut recital at the Verbier Festival, which was broadcast by medici.tv. Together with Marc Bouchkov, Tsotne was a TV host of the Verbier Festival opening on medici.tv. Furthermore, medici.tv produced a series of episodes, “Introducing Tsotne”, with Tsotne in conversation with violinist Marc Bouchkov.
In the 22-23 season, Tsotne performed in Paris for 25th Anniversary of Mezzo TV at Cirque d’Hiver. Lahav Shani invited him to participate in the rehearsals of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Rotterdam. Furthermore, he performed at the Festival Kissinger Sommerfest and participated at the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus. In Summer 2023 he played a solo recital at Schloss Elmau as well as a chamber music concert with a renowned violinist Marc Bouchkov. He also gave solo recitals at the Verbier Festival 2023 and Tsinandali Festival 2023, both of them where broadcast on medici.tv.
In the season 2023-24 Tsotne is invited to perform in Brussels, Munich, Berlin, Schloss Elmau. Among others, he will play Schönberg’s Piano concerto with the BLJO and Sir Simon Rattle.
Since 2021, Tsotne is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, participating in various international foundation concerts as well as receiving ongoing support in all educational aspects. With the help of the foundation, in December 2020, October 2021 and May 2023 Tsotne traveled to Berlin to receive masterclasses from maestro Daniel Barenboim as well as Jörg Widmann. Furthermore, in April 2023 Tsotne traveled to London to play for maestros Alfred Brendel and Antonio Pappano.
Tsotne continues to study under the guidance of his grandmother and teacher, Nino Mamradze. Furthermore, he received several online lessons from Rena Shereshevskaya, a professor at Alfred Cortot Music School of Paris.
Composer Giya Kancheli has said, “Phenomenal musicians like Tsotne are born once in a century.” Elisso Virsaladze commented, “In all my life, I have never met anyone quite as remarkable as this child.” In his interview, Nikoloz Rachveli quoted Daniel Barenboim’s words about Tsotne: “Mozart came back to Germany from Georgia.”
